This was the problem with living on a teeny-tiny island. Everyone knew everyone else. And they all loved spreading gossip. I was going to pour salt in Crosby’s beer the next time I served him. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to share what had happened with Kenna and Caelyn—I told them everything—it was just that I hadn’t wrapped my head around it yet.

Caelyn took a sip of her tea. “Ford does seem pretty protective of you.”

“Yeah, like a little sister,” I grumbled into my coffee.

“And the problem with that is?” Kenna asked.

Caelyn reached around me to smack Kenna’s knee. “You know what the problem is.”

Of course they already knew. They’d known since the day I first started having those butterflies take flight in my belly when Ford was around. They’d listened to my fears that I’d never feel for anyone the way I felt about him. And they’d held me as I sobbed when I learned that he was gone for good. So, of course, they knew those feelings wouldn’t just up and vanish.

“Maybe I need to sign up for one of those online dating sites or apps.” It’s not like I had dated a lot in college and after, and it had to partially be a numbers game. If I put myself out there enough, there had to be someone who’d make my skin tingle and my soul feel at peace the way Ford did. I just hadn’t tried hard enough to find them.

“Are you trying to get murdered?”

“Kenna,” Caelyn scolded.

“What? Those places are a breeding ground for serial killers and sexual predators.”

I grimaced. “I’ll be safe. Meet in a public place, not give out my phone number.”

“Everything’s searchable these days, Bell.”

“We could double.” I looked to Caelyn. “Or triple?”

Caelyn held up her hands. “Oh, no. You’re not dragging me into this. I’m perfectly happy with my fantasy life with Griffin the Greek god.”

I grinned at her but underlying it was just a hint of worry. The last thing she needed was to build that broody man up in her mind to something he wasn’t. “Okay, fine. But I have to try something, and it’s not like there are a lot of options on an island of fifteen hundred people.”

Kenna turned in her seat so she was facing me, tucking one long leg under her. “What’s with the sudden desperate urge to date?”

Emotion clogged my throat. “I have to get over him. I thought I was. For the past eleven years, all I’ve felt was anger.” Anger and maybe a little sadness for all that I’d thought Ford had thrown away. “But all it took was one look at him in the flesh to know I’d been lying to myself all along.”